Review: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin Demo

I really need to stop playing this type of game in my basement.  Perhaps this is a testament to the realism these games are starting to present.  I can remember the days of the original Doom.  The closest we got to jumping out of our chairs was the occasional creature jumping onto the screen right in front of us.  The pix-elated characters could hardly be mistaken for real.  Well with the latest incarnation of the horror action genre, all of that changes.

In this sequel Alma has been freed from her tomb.  The result is terrifying to say the least.  She is looking to alter reality to match that of her own twisted vision of it.  We can thank her dad for making his daughter the subject of a gruesome set of experiments that attempt to tap her psychic skills for military gain.

Interestingly enough the most chilling element of this has to be the fact that a little girl is at the root of it all.  I had discussed in a prior posting (found HERE), that most horror movies, and games do not include children in the mix.  I can tell you this, it really ramps up the nerves to see a little girl have all this power, and a normally innocent image being the monster.  Way to turn my analysis on it ear Monolith<grin>.

Project Origin is graphically gorgeous.  You are immersed into the burned out city shortly after the destruction of they city in the first game.  This time you are a member of a delta squad that was dispatched to arrest Genevieve Aristide, the president of the company that attempted to reopen the project that created this whole mess.  As is usual in these sorts of games your timing is not good because you are sent out a mere 30 minutes before the cataclysmic event.

You are pitted against all manner of beings in this demo.  Mostly though you just face other military types with creepy ghost-type characters.  The atmosphere in this game raises the hairs on the back of your neck.  While the demo only offers a very small taste of the game itself, you get to enjoy some of the new toys including the powered armor (very cool).  I found myself extremely entranced by the game and it’s creepy beauty is hard to pass up.

I think Monolith has a winner here.  Check out the game trailer below.  The game releases on February 10th.  There are demos for both x-box and pc.  The pc demo can be found HERE.